SCHILLER AND THE TYPE-PROBLEM	97
which already enjoys a better development through
heredity, In one man it is the function of thought, in
another feeling, which is especially accessible to further
development. Thus it happens that the urge of cultural
demands engages the individual's special concern with
the development of that capacity which Nature has
already intended as his most favourable line* But thij
capacity for development does not mean that the function
has an a priori claim to any particular fitness; it merely
presupposes—one might almost say, on the contrary—a
certain functional delicacy, lability, and plasticity. On
this account the highest individual value is not by any
means always to be sought or found in this function ; but
just in so far as it is developed for a collective end, it may
possibly yield the highest collective value. But it may
well be the case, as already observed, that far higher
individual values lie hidden among the neglected functions,
which, although of small importance for the collective life,
are of the very greatest value to individual development.
These, therefore, represent a living value which can endow
the life of the individual with an intensity and beauty that
he will vainly seek in his collective function. The differ-
entiated function certainly procures for him the possibility
of collective existence, but not that satisfaction and joy of
life which the development of individual values alone can
give. Their absence is often sensed as something deeply
lacking, and the severance from them is like an inner
division which, with Schiller, one might compare with a
painful wound,
<f Thus, however much may be gained for the world at large
by the separate development of human capacities, it cannot be
denied that the individuals affected by it suffer under the curse
of this general aim, Athletic bodies are certainly built up by
means of gymnastic exercises, but beauty is won only through
the free and uniform play of the limbs, In the same way the
tension of individual mental powers can produce extraordinary